Handmade soap shop back open

Handmade gift soap- pink crown Shea Butter soap

I am taking over with SoapyChica again as Liz has so much going on with her pre-Christmas house move and all sorts of family stuff that she will have her hands full this holiday season. I have missed soap making so I am excited! Of course there is a lot to get my head around with the new paperwork requirements, and on reopening our Etsy Soapychica soap store, I have discovered that a lot has changed over at Etsy too! I have begun to build our own standalone store at www.soapychica.com which still needs a lot of work, so that is October taken care of! I am looking to fill both stores with plenty of handmade soap gifts and to have them available to buy ready for Christmas. Both online shops have shopping carts set up to enable UK and international shipping so that people can order from overseas.

A little blog feature!

I was delighted today to stumble upon a little feature on the Craft Gossip Bath and Body blog . Previously I was unfamiliar with the blog, but it looks good so I will be following it from now on, I am constantly amazed by all the new goodies available on the internet!

Almond Coffee

When I was pouring this soap, the whole house smelt like a coffee shop. The fragrance is almond milk but I coloured the soap with coffee which means there is a goodish coffee smell about the soap. I made three colours of soap and then poured them all together to make the soap a little bit swirly. There is Rhassoul clay in there, which is one of my favourite soap ingredients, shea butter and avocado butter and a little copper mica. The finished soap reminds me of an appaloosa pony!
I am planning to make another couple of soaps next week with this plain mould, and then hopefully by the second week in June my new moulds will have arrived from America and I can get busy with those!

Some usable soaps (hopefully)

I decided to make some nice plain bars for my SoapyChica shop, since so many people tell me they could never actually wash with my soaps and I thought that was a shame! I have made soaps with the half round moulds and they make a nice large bar. I cant really use my SoapyChica stamp on them-that is the only drawback, but I love them anyway as they are so smooth . I have used shea and avocado butters and two types of clay, including my favourite Rhassoul, and some of my favourite fragrances as well so I have really enjoyed making them, and I want to make some more next week. The silly thing is I want to try one and I am too scared to use one and spoil it :)
Here is a pic of the Honey Pudding one I took today.